Chip Kelly could be a game-changer for Northwestern's talent level
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There are 136 FBS college football programs, but very few of them have a former NFL head coach at the Offensive Coordinator position. Northwestern University is a member of this very select group having announced the hire of Chip Kelly on the day before New Year’s Eve.
NU ended 2025 with a splash hire, in the truest sense as Kelly brings a CV that second to none for a college OC. He’s been a head coach at the NFL level with the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers.
He’s also been a head coach at Oregon (where he led the Ducks to a national runner-up/title game appearance in 2010) and UCLA. Additionally, he was the OC and QB coach at Ohio State last season, when they won a national title.
The term “game changer” is certainly thrown around way too often these days, but in this case it’s legitimate. Northwestern head coach David Braun, fresh off a win in the Gameabove Sports Bowl, was right to use that term on Tuesday afternoon.
“An opportunity to bring him on board and have him be a part of Northwestern football was something that could be an absolute
game changer for this program and specifically our offense here,” Braun said during a media Zoom call.
Northwestern certainly won a lot games during the Pat Fitzgerald era, but they didn’t produce a ton of NFL Draft picks. This looks likely to change, as Kelly takes the reins of the offense, and with that, the program will be bringing in the type of athletes required to run his systems.
Later on during the virtual media availability, Braun described him as “a proven developer of young men as a college coach, but has also experienced the pinnacle of coaching at the NFL level.”
Braun added: “that comes with a lot of perspective. That comes with a lot of value.”
“He’s got a really strong understanding of the league and the additions to the Big Ten…His experience in the NFL…Those converging experiences on top of his ability to be creative, innovative, open-minded.”
That creativity and open-mindedness works well in some places, not as well in others.
If you covered Chip Kelly during his days at Oregon, the media would often joke- “being the Ducks punter or kicker is the easiest job around- because you rarely ever get called upon.”
It was in Eugene where Kelly first really gained the reputation as a riverboat gambler type of play-caller, who likes to run a swashbuckling kind of offense.
Maybe this is why it ultimately didn’t work out in Philly, as the Eagles are a franchise that is somewhat synonymous with a more conservative, perhaps even gritty, style on offense.
Current Eagles starting quarterback Jalen Hurts has taken a lot of criticism this season, for his perceived unwillingness to consistently air it out in the vertical passing game. According to a report in The Athletic, Hurts’ teammates have grown frustrated with Hurts’ tendency to avoid making the throws into tighter windows.
Although former Eagles head coach Dick Vermeil disputed those claims.
“I think most of it is baloney,” Vermeil said in an exclusive with RG. “We manufacture news, positive and negative. We manufacture stories, we take rumors, or we take things out of context and promote them to promote more news. I just don’t think there’s any real truth to it.”
So how will Kelly’s flashy offense fit in at Northwestern? It’s obviously known as a defense-first kind of program, and Braun was a Defensive Coordinator before he was elevated into his current role.
On offense, NU doesn’t really have a run-first or pass-first kind of brand identity. They do have a good history of being cutting edge on offense though, at least in terms of the spread-option. Former NU head coach Randy Walker adopted it in Evanston long before it became trendy within the wider scope of college football.
Additionally, the Wildcats had a string of very efficient and effective passers during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Braun is expecting Kelly to open up the playbook as wide as possible.
“I don’t think there’s anything about Coach Kelly that’s conservative or passive,” Braun said
“I think he understands that everything needs to complement one another. I want him bringing all his creativity, all his aggressiveness.”
The next season will see NU open up their new stadium, the new Ryan Field. At a cost of $862 million, it’s the most expensive college-only stadium in history. So Northwestern will definitely be looking to draw crowds, and as they say, offense sells tickets and draws ratings.
“I’m sure there’s going to be elements of of what we’ve seen at Oregon,” Braun said of the upcoming Chip Kelly era.
“Also based on the personnel he had at UCLA, and some of the best rushing attacks in the country, elements of that and where his expertise is really going to have to shine is identifying what we currently have at Northwestern and what additions we make and positioning us for tremendous success, not only on offense, but as a team in 2026.”
To a lot of people, the Chip Kelly to Northwestern news was quite surprising, to say the least. However, Braun provided a great quote about what external expectations for NU might be in, contrast to what they believe about themselves within their walls.
“You’re not out to prove other people wrong, but to prove yourself right,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Draft Wire: Chip Kelly’s offense should attract better talent to Northwestern
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